Madonna has announced her long-rumored Veronica Electronica album – an album of remixes of her album Ray Of Light – will finally see the light of day.
Ray Of Light, her 1998 release produced by William Orbit, is considered by many to be her best album. Orbit produced all the tracks, but one, and his arrangements are creative and full of interesting synth work.
In a 1998 Keyboard magazine interview, Orbit shared these technical details about the album’s production:
“It’s not a ton of gear. Most of it is pretty retro: a Korg MS-20, a [Roland] Juno-106, a [Roland] JD-800. Much of the album was done on a Juno-106. You can get so much out of that synth. Also a significant amount of it was done on the MS-20 — the more spiky sounds. A few things that people think are guitar are actually the MS-20.
And then there were a few more bits and pieces: a few modules, a Yamaha DX7, a Novation Bass Station, a [Roland] JP-8000, a lot of Roland stuff. I’ve always liked Roland stuff.
I started the whole thing on an Atari [ST] system with [Steinberg] Cubase II. I didn’t know that was unusual until about two-thirds of the way through, when people would comment on it. At one point the thing even caught fire. Really. Smoke coming out of it. It was like, “What’s that smell? Oh, it’s burning components.”
But the funniest memory was Madonna, who doesn’t do a lot of keyboard playing, messing around on a keyboard marked up with grease pencils. I mean, picture Madonna, the biggest pop star in the world, playing with this retro gear that you could buy for $50 in the Recycler.”
The album turned out to be a wild success – selling more than 16 million copies and earning four Grammy Awards. But the planned remix album never saw the light of day.
Now, nearly three decades later, Veronica Electronica is being released. It features remixes by Peter Rauhofer, William Orbit, Sasha, BT, Victor Calderone, and others. The first remix, for Skin, is out now (embedded above).
Veronica Electronica is being released July 25 vinyl and in digital formats.
Veronica Electronica LP Track Listing:
Side A
1.”Drowned World/Substitute For Love” – BT & Sasha Bucklodge Ashram New Edit
2.”Ray Of Light” – Sasha Twilo Mix Edit
3.”Skin” – The Collaboration Remix Edit
4.”Nothing Really Matters” – Club 69 Speed Mix Meets The Dub
Side B
1.”Sky Fits Heaven” – Victor Calderone Future New Edit
2.”Frozen” – Widescreen Mix and Drums
3.”The Power Of Good-Bye” – Fabien’s Good God Mix Edit
4.”Gone, Gone, Gone” – Original Demo Version
there is no point in remixing this album (ray of light).
It’s perfect as it is.
What’s the point in remixing it when the remix isnt better than the original?
but Im sure everybody was excited to get their hands on this. meh
Ray of Light remixed sounds really bad. Here’s the original good stuff. Compare it.
https://youtu.be/Zs3pIvHhUq8?si=5dnzh7pd16P5YxIQ
I feel mixed about the proto-boomer narrative of Synthtopia
we sure had the better techno parties in the 90s and the fresher music. Who says different? people that weren’t there? if you can remember everything you weren’t there either. it was the total exit from reality into techno utopia. it made everybody feel free and opened our minds for different things.
nobody gave a fuck who you where, what you did or what you wore, not these plastic people with their fake happy live and bling bling that totally needs to be documented for the rest of the world to see with composed selfies on instagram from today.
Why do you think smoking pot and same sex marriage is legal now?
because of us.
it took a while but we won in the end, it seems.
I still remember the parties with papa Sven as we used to call him at OMEN, it wasn’t Berlin or Detroit as ppl like to pretend now that weren’t there. Frankfurt ruled. that was the spirit that lifted my generation.
So you have mixed feelings about what exactly, if I may ask politel
y. greetings from Germany
I thought Germany lost the war
That was a long time ago.
That Generation and their victims are dead now.
How far did you get with that attitude?
Half-Life 3 confirmed!
William Orbit took Madonna on a refreshing techno side trip. I strongly recommend any of his solo instrumental albums. He has a unique touch that’s hard to compare with others.
pieces in a modern style 1 & 2 are fabulous
Seconded! I’ve been a fan of his since discovering his first ‘Strange Cargo’ album in 1987. Through his solo releases as well as projects like Bassomatic, his remixes and production credits and the output of his record label (Guerilla Records) he had a huge influence on British progressive dance music of the late 1980’s to mid 1990’s. I believe he is significantly underrated. I quite like his own alternative mixes on this compilation but I cannot agree that the remixes by other people add or improve on Williams work.
back to topic
you can hear the sound of Frankfurt in ray of light, if you are able to watch through the cracks in time & location.
its wasnt mind numbing boom zack boom zack bread and butter techno (the Detroit and Berlin stuff)
its early Frankfurt trance that made millions dance and inspired everybody around the globe.
, if you are able to see and listen through the cracks of time & location. 😉
electronic music and party is now the usual nightlife entertainment everywhere, before my generation it was still that rock and roll and whiskey cola and trying to pick up girls in boring clubs. yuck.
I was dancing with fire read or blue hair half naked in frankfurts gay clubs to records that came out Frankfurt, every now and then the police showed up and did nothing and left confused. they were just hm irritated and couldn’t figure out what was going on. brutal loud weird electronic music, half naked ppl, everybody happy and smiling and dancing, nobody drank. nobody watched the dj either, the entertainment was the ppl around you on the dance floor and the music. and it was fucking dark you couldn’t see much, maybe strobo flashing light and fractals on the wall laughs
that was very “underground” at the time, the mainstream still shook their long hair to nirvana and got drunk.
btw. forget all that crap you may have heard about how techno is black and Detroit and all that stuff. It was actually very hard to get UR records in Germany. I had to drive to Berlins hardwax to get some.
their influence on the European scene was actually very small,
its just the story they told everybody to boost their low self-esteem, me thinks.
You couldn’t really buy the records, means the DJs couldn’t play them, how are you supposed to be influenced by something you never heard because nobody had the records to play them. 😉
So you couldnt get UR and stuff – what was available from across the pond was plus 8 so everybody knew plastikman. British(?) white guy that moved to Windsor Canada. I guess he was influenced by the Detroit stuff.
Sorry black folks, stop telling all that bs.
dont get confused by stories from ppl that weren’t around or like to appear bigger than they are/were. 😉
Sorry lala but you’re incorrect on a lot of levels.. maybe *you* couldn’t get the records but lots of people did.. and if you don’t think plus 8 and Rich wasn’t directly influenced by UR then you really don’t know the history of Detroit very well.. The story of underground music is often the same.. a small but influential few that get heard by the next gen that are very influenced/inspired by it and then adapt it and carry it forward bringing it out to a larger and wider crowd. Not to diminsh at all what Rich or Sven or others in Europe did but the origins of that music are very easily traced back to Detroit and not just UR but the Belleville 3 and many others that aren’t nearly as famous or made as much money. Things grow from seeds and many of those guys were the seeds.
Also, i’m not sure where you’re from in Germany but driving to Hardwax to get UR records was pretty standard practice for many DJs even if they didn’t live in Berlin… Just like many DJs in the US flew to Europe and came home with record bags full of new records from there to play for the crowds in the US.. of course the influences moved back and forth like this.
Only now is it so easy for anyone to get anything.. then you had to work for it but plenty of people did.
Also, Rich is Canadian and I’m not sure if it’s your intention or a language issue but FYI your comments come off as racist. Even though your understanding about the history of techno seems a bit limited you could still make an argument about what was influential without being racist about it. Something to consider 😉
I can draw a str8 line in the history of electronic music from JMJ/Kraftwerk/Giorgio Moroder to new wave and Industrial to whatever subgenre of electronic dance music you like without ever mentioning anything that happened in the USA if I want to.
Anything that happened there is just a side note to the mainstory.
Its a European thing. 😉
America did not understand this, they had hip hop.
*insert any old US techno artist here* it just didnt take off, did it? 😉
“maybe *you* couldn’t get the records but lots of people did.. ”
nope, they didnt know how to do business and sold nothing 😉
thats why they are still angry & jealous they didnt get a piece of the cake …
“if you don’t think plus 8 and Rich wasn’t directly influenced by UR then you really don’t know the history of Detroit very well.. ”
I didnt say that, I said he was.
I just think that the little Detroit scene with 300 ppl was very isolated,
compared to the acid house partys that went on in the UK …
there was no “2nd summer of love” in the USA or anything like that
and no Loveparade either.
stop rewriting history with overhyped Detroit stories, please
america didnt give a fuck about that kind of music, they wanted and still want hip hop. cough
we had Kraftwerk & DAF here
we didnt need American music to get to the next level. 😉
america needed this for inspiration,
not the other way around. 😉
your are telling the story upside down
“Sorry black folks, stop telling all that bs” – Are you for real? that’s nearly racist territory
im just tiered of hearing all those urban myths, that ppl like to believe, from artists that sold no records.
they are not like the “velvet underground” that had a big influence on everybody. 😉
Great album but most of these were out in the singles. I distinctly remember having the Sasha and Calderone remixes. Clubbable, but they haven’t aged particularly well.
we have ray of light remixed before GTA 6
Oh, bugger all that! 😛 Frankie Knuckles said that techno was disco’s revenge. Its too easy to press Play and get half a band to come out of a module. It can dull you after a while.
Then there are people like David Van Tieghem, who played percussion with Laurie Anderson. I stumbled over his album “These Things Happen.” Its almost like a solid house mix with a synth orchestra laid neatly over the beat. Its on the far end from “cookie cutter” thud-thud epics. I have no issues with people who just love the club setting, but if you dig a little, there are those who really elevate the form.
what ppl dont seem to understand is that the Berlin-Detroit connection just happened in the very small tresor/hardwax possy, outside of Berlin this wasn’t much noticed.
what ppl in retrospect dont understand is that Berlin wasn’t the center of everything.
everybody just moved there over the last 25 years, so they get the wrong impression and think Detroit techno was a big thing in Europe and made a big impression … it wasn’t. 😉